I feel like for the people who just left college it won’t be easy to get a high paying job due to the competition in their field. Anyone with more experience would get the job over them since they have none.
Which is why new grads don’t get high paying jobs. Did you think you were just going to waltz into a great paying position with no experience? The student who tend to do the best in their job search post-graduation usually have found some internships, maybe researched in their area of interest, etc. Students often have to start at the bottom (in some industries, like publishing, grads often take unpaid jobs to break in and make connections). Just because you got a degree doesn’t mean anyone owes you a high paying job.
You’re right. Most people who leave college don’t get high paying jobs. They take what they can get, get valuable experience, and move their way up. Internships and jobs while in school are vital for the experience that people hiring look for. It really depends on what field you are going into!
Agreed with everyone else. Honestly, it even starts in highschool. The minimum wage jobs and involvement you have there enables you to get the first internships freshman/sophomore year, enabling you to get others down the road. It keeps building.
It depends on the field an area. Keep in mind it’s cheaper for companies to hire people at the junior level. Someone with a significant amount of experience will usually cost a company more to hire.
It depends on the field. Electrical engineers in my area make a lot in internships, make a lot in full-time roles, and get so many offers that they can be picky about what they want to take. It also depends on the company. The bigger the company the higher the salary. However, to get to a place where you can make a lot in internships and be picky about roles, you have to work your butt off. This includes free or low-paying jobs to get experience, not having time for anything but work and school, etc. But if you do all that in good timing and while you’re in school you can move up pretty quickly with good internships and a good full-time role.
Looking at a survey from last year’s CS grads from L&S at UC-Berkeley, the average starting salary and companies where people got jobs is pretty amazing. For EECS grade the average starting salary is even higher.
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2017CompSci.pdf
So for those of you who say it doesn’t matter what school you go to, I can pretty much say that yes it does matter what school you go to when you go for your first full-time job.
@ProfessorPlum168 in the Bay Area a family of 3 is considered low income if they earn less than $110,000.
Also CS starting salaries are significantly higher than virtually any other field.
That is median income, 2 wage family. Apples to oranges.
In addition, you get some experience working for a great company and it’s a lot easier to find another higher paying job 2 to 3 years later. Even if you stay at your current job you get the additional benefits like cheaper healthcare, cafeteria, year end bonus and 401k matchings that boost your total “compensation” another 20% or more.
But major can make a much larger difference in some cases. While 2017 L&S CS graduates at UCB tended to have very successful first job searches, 2017 biology graduates at UCB tended to have significantly less successful first job searches:
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2017IntBio.pdf
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2017MCB.pdf